Most police departments are seeing an increase in credit card fraud and identity theft reports.

Flushing

• 2006: 10

• 2007: 13

• 2008: 8

Flushing Township

• 2006: 13

• 2007: 21

• 2008: 20

Clayton Township

• 2006: 3

• 2007: 6

• 2008: 14

The first clue that someone was using their personal information to commit fraud was in March, when a representative of Visa called Rick Caruso.

"When I was hanging up, she said, 'I want to thank you for opening your credit card account.' I knew there was a problem, so I talked to this lady to find out information about this, and she said make a police report," said Rick Caruso, 60, of Clayton Township.

The Carusos were victims of identity theft, a crime that's on the rise in Flushing and Clayton townships.

Fighting to get their credit and bills back in order was a long battle, said Rick Caruso.

He started by making a report with the Clayton Township Police Department and gave the report number to a representative from Visa.

"The Visa people told me the address where they were sending information, so I gave it to the police," Caruso said. "It was an empty Fenton house."

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service division in Detroit, a federal law enforcement agency, began investigating the situation.

For the next three months, Caruso called credit card companies and learned that the suspect had unsuccessfully tried to open five other accounts in his name.

Interested in putting a fraud alert on his credit report, he was shocked to find it impossible. Not only had the identity thief changed Caruso's address to that of the empty Fenton house, he also had changed Caruso's place of employment to a car repair garage in Fenton, although Caruso is a General Motors retiree.

Caruso had to go to the Social Security office and prove his identity to get control of the reports and put a fraud alert on his credit.

"That guy changed all that information with a stroke of a key on the computer," Caruso said.

By May, Caruso believed the saga was over. But in December, a postal inspector informed him that inspectors had watched the abandoned house, saw the man who was picking up mail there and followed him to another house.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service was able to get a search warrant for the second house and found thousands of paper applications that people had filled out in the early 1990s for cellphones at an office in Flint. One was an application Caruso had completed, and it included his credit card number and Social Security number.

"That's when I found out he had opened a bank account with Washington Mutual, deposited money in it and withdrew money from it. He had also tried to open an account with Wachovia and two more credit card accounts in my name," Caruso said of evidence postal inspectors found at the man's house.

Caruso closed the accounts and does not know of any other accounts opened fraudulently.

"It did not cost me a dime, but it cost me about 50 to 60 hours of time talking to people," he said. "When you first get into this, you don't know what is going on. It's not over, I'm sure. The postal inspector led me to believe he (the suspect) isn't in jail."

Caruso said he and his wife were always careful with personal information, yet this still happened.

He is not alone. In Clayton Township, fraud reports have risen from three in 2006 to 14 in 2008.

Reports in Flushing Township jumped from 13 to 20 in the same three-year period.

"We've received about six (reports) already this year, we're probably set to surpass last year," said Flushing Township Detective Sgt. Don Gansen.

He said in a November case, a Speedway gasoline card was stolen from a vehicle in Flushing Township, and $1,858 in charges were made in four hours. He said the charges were made in Burton and on the south side of Flint, and he is hoping video surveillance at the stations can help police catch the thief.

Credit card and identity theft reports spiked to 13 in 2007 in Flushing, but there were only 10 in 2006 and eight in 2008.

"I think sometimes there is a sense of security in a community like Flushing, and it is a safe community, but we do have crimes happen," said Flushing Police Chief Mark Hoornstra.

He got a call from a woman on Feb. 2 who said a caller tried to get her to deposit money in a bank account because she won a sweepstakes for a BMW. The caller said the BMW was at the Swartz Creek Police Department.

Clolinger said if something seems to be too good to be true, there's probably something wrong. Residents who get from people seeking money or personal information should call the police right away, he said.

"The biggest thing is just making good common sense decisions and not giving out your information," he said.